History Summarized: Sparta's Finest Hour
Added 2023-05-12 15:05:01 +0000 UTCIt's the criminally-little-known story of Kleomenes III and his mother Kratisikleia, an all time great story from Greek history.
Also it was the subject of my undergraduate honors thesis 5 years ago. Link to that paper is available in the description.
-Blue
Comments
There's a couple points at which you could say the dual kingship ended, depending on your criteria. Kleomenes put his brother Eucleidas as king from 227 to 222, so in that way, the Eurypontid dynasty was usurped and the kingship was broken. The dual kingship was stopped by the Macedonians in 222 after Sellasia, but it was softly reinstated after Cleomenes' death in 219, but from 215 to 192 it was sole kings in charge until the Achaean league annexed Sparta officially and permanently. -B
Overly Sarcastic Productions
2023-05-12 20:06:49 +0000 UTCTiny question - when Blue mentioned at the end of the video, that, between Rome and Macedonia, the dual kingship had ended...my thought was "Wait, didn't that happen when Kleomenes' dad was one of the kings?" regardless, I enjoyed this video a great deal; kudos!
Anthony Docimo
2023-05-12 20:02:28 +0000 UTCAwesome video! I really liked it since it's a shame that this war is so little-known in the rest of the world. The only things I would've changed about it are adding a couple details about the life and reforms of Kleomenes III: Kleomenes began his reforms by handing over all his land to the state, and he was soon followed by his stepfather, his friends, and then the rest of what was left of Sparta's citizens. He divided up all the land in equal portions and gave it all to the Spartan citizens, including the 4,000 new citizens who would go on to form his new army, the latter of which consisted of old citizens who had been exiled and new citizens who were mainly mercenaries brought in to help fight. Kleomenes also decree that the new army would follow the model of the Macedonian army and that his brother Eucleidas would be the new second king of Sparta. After fleeing to Alexandria, Kleomenes had hoped that the Ptolemaic emperor at the time, Ptolemy III Euergetes (who arguably was the most successful of the dynasty) would eventually help him retake his throne. Ptolemy IV however, who took over the empire upon the death of his father, had no interest in such a war and placed Kleomenes under house arrest. In 219 B.C. Kleomenes attempted to start a revolt, but he failed to gather any real support from the Alexandrian citizenry and committed suicide to avoid capture.
Ian Pendleton
2023-05-12 18:01:51 +0000 UTC
